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What To Eat Before Your Workout
Posted by Adelaide
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There’s nothing worse than training on an empty stomach only to find you’ve hit a wall 10mins into your session. To get the most out of your workout you’ll need to fuel your body effectively, otherwise you run the risk of not only feeling light-headed, nauseous and fatigued but your body may go into a catabolic state. This is where the body starts breaking down muscle tissue to use as fuel.
We need to make sure that we are eating enough protein and carbs for our energy needs before and after our workouts in order to get the health and fitness results that we want.
If your exercising at a steady state such as a 20min gentle jog you can train on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, but be mindful that you may tire sooner and it’s something I would not advocate doing on a regular basis as it is not an effective long term weight loss strategy.
What to eat if your training early mornings.
Bananas are the best choice as a light, easily digestible source of carbohydrates plus their high in potassium, which we lose when we sweat.
A small handful of nuts and seeds are also good. If you want something more substantial, try going for a light fruit smoothie. Add yogurt or milk (Almond, Hazelnut or Oat milk) for added protein and calcium.
You can use berries but use them sparingly as they are packed with fruits sugars and we don’t want a rush of sugar in our blood stream first thing in the morning but you can fill the smoothie with plenty of fibre rich vegetables such as Spinach, Kale and Cucumbers etc. to balance out the sugar load.
Try to eat about 15mins - 30mins before a morning training session.
What to eat if your training at lunch-time?
Yogurt I find a is a great dose of protein pre-workout. I usually mix in some dried fruits, nuts (almonds, pistachio’s) and my favourite sunflower seeds. Go for a no added sugar plain yogurt or Greek Yogurt variety.
If you’d like to eat more, a small bowl of porridge, a slice of whole grain toast with avocado topping or a no added sugar granola bar should all give you enough fuel for your workout.
Eat around 60-90mins before your workout.
What to eat if your training in the evening?
A nut butter such as whole organic peanut, hazelnut or almond butter sandwich on whole-grain bread, rice cakes or on half a bagel is great. You can also have whole grain bread topped with slices of turkey or hummus for that protein/carb hit too.
Avoid fatty foods such as pastries and chocolates bars as these take a while for the stomach to digest and can leave you feeling sluggish and prone to cramp. You probably won’t need to have an energy drink unless your training at high intensity for over 90mins. Just be mindful that energy drinks may also contain added sugar.
These are all smaller meals designed to fuel your workout, so try to avoid eating too much before a workout as this can cause indigestion, nausea, sluggishness and sometimes vomiting (which is not the best thing to happen in the gym).
These meals in no way replace your main meal so make sure you eat a larger meal and re-fuel post -workout. I’ll be talking about post-workout foods in another blog post so make sure you look out for that.
Also check out three of my favourite detox smoothies that I make at home. You can have them for breakfast or as a mid-meal snack to keep you hydrated and full of healthy goodness.
Adelaide
Adelaide Brooks is a Certified Personal Trainer and Life Coach with a Degree in Sports and Exercise Science and a Masters in Psychology. She has over 15 years experience as a health trainer in the medical and fitness industry.
If you would like to book a body transformation training session with Adelaide please take a look at the services page.